A narrative is a story that we tell ourselves, and not necessarily what happened in reality. For example, the "Iranian threat" narrative, which has become the common wisdom in Israeli public discourse. A new book by Gareth Porter, an American historian and researcher specializing in U.S. national security, shows how the actual state of the Iranian nuclear program does not match the Iranian threat narrative.

The book's title, "Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Nuclear Scare" (Just World Books), already tells us that it is going against the current. Porter appears to be the only researcher who has read with an unprejudiced eye all the reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency from the past decade. He also had access to American intelligence reports on the Iranian issue from recent decades. In addition, Porter interviewed generations of American officials and analyzed the testimony of senior officials before Congress.

Ha'aretz - Gareth Porter - IPS.
I guess french-kissing the Khmer Rouge got stale, so now we snuggle with the Mullahs. No state has clean hands, but some are far worse than others.
"The IPS is the perfect intellectual front for Soviet activities which would be resisted if they were to originate openly from the KGB.".........Brian Crozier, director of the London-based Institute for the Study of Conflict, 1978